1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrophotographic image forming apparatus and particularly to a connecting structure for electrically connecting units for performing an image forming process on a sheet and a high-voltage board for supplying high voltages to the units.
2. Description of the Related Art
An electrophotographic image forming apparatus such as a printer or a facsimile machine includes a plurality of built-in processing units for performing an image forming process on a sheet. The processing units include, for example, a photoconductive drum unit on which a toner image is to be formed, a developing unit for forming a toner image on the photoconductive drum by supplying toner to the photoconductive drum and an intermediate transfer unit including an intermediate transfer belt to which a color toner image is to be transferred when the image forming apparatus is of a tandem type.
The image forming apparatus further includes a high-voltage board for supplying high voltages to the above processing units. The high-voltage board and the processing units are electrically connected by connecting members. In a conventional image forming apparatus, coiled contacts of connecting members of processing units are pressed into contact with planar contacts of connecting members of a high-voltage board to electrically connect the processing units and the high-voltage board when the processing units are mounted into a housing.
Image forming apparatuses of recent years are required to be small in size. This not only reduces spaces around processing units, but also leads to such a structure that other constituent parts are incorporated between the processing units and the high-voltage board. Thus, connecting members for electrically connecting the processing units and the high-voltage board become complicated in shape. Considering that many connecting members are used for the electrical connection, the connecting members having complicated shapes is one of causes for cost increase.